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HSP Career Story: Multi-Passionate + Professional Organizer – Monica

HSP Career Story: Multi-Passionate + Professional Organizer – Monica

I interviewed Monica Parker because I thought you might benefit from hearing the career story of a multi-passionate and highly sensitive extrovert. I want you to hear how she’s making it all come together in her current career as a solopreneur.

I know, trust, and adore Monica, and have referred business to her. We could all learn a lot from her example. She’s also a former coaching client who came to me to support her through a career transition. She was ready to create her own path with self-employment, and to do it in a thoughtful way that aligned with her energy and who she is. She’s making it work!

Meet Monica Parker

Monica Parker HSP extrovert multi-passionate solopreneurMonica recently launched Monica Parker Organizing. She is a professional organizer working with busy women who are overwhelmed by the state of their homes to help them declutter and organize so they can fully exhale and relax in their spaces.

Monica has been formally trained by Marie Kondo’s company. (Kondo is the author of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up and the host of the Netflix TV show Tidying Up with Marie Kondo.)

But that’s not all Monica does. She has a portfolio career, which means she’s combining different kinds of work for variety and income. In addition to being a business owner, she is also an independent contractor with a few organizations providing group coaching for associates at large law firms (she’s a former practicing lawyer), as well as executive coaching/mastermind facilitation for women in the C-suite (she once held a nonprofit leadership role).

Monica has had several different careers, including film (she worked with Spike Lee!), law, conflict resolution, career coaching, and DEI. Monica rightfully describes herself as a “career change expert.”

Let’s get the inside story on how this all works for her:

My Interview with Monica

Being multi-passionate, how do you decide what you want to pursue?

Monica: Oh, that’s a good question. And a tough one. What I’ve had to tell myself is that I have time. I have time to experience all the things I want to experience. And before I discovered the world of portfolio careers, I would go where my interests took me.

For example, and this is a true story, when I was in my mid-20’s, I was trying to figure out what to do next career-wise, and my older brother said to me, “You like grocery stores. Winn Dixie [a Southeastern grocery store chain] is hiring management trainees.” I do like grocery stores, and I thought that could be interesting.

I applied, got the job, and went through management training for a year. Then I became an assistant manager and helped run a grocery store.

I enjoyed that for two years, and then I was ready to experience the next thing. Which turned out to be law school. I’ve always allowed myself to be led by my interests. All these years later I wouldn’t have it any other way.

There are two great books on careers for multi-passionate people that were instrumental in helping me recognize that there wasn’t something wrong with me. Refuse to Choose by Barbara Sher and Renaissance Soul by Margaret Lobenstine.

How has being an HSP influenced your career choices?

Monica: It can be hard being an HSP in the world of work. Stuff that doesn’t bother non-HSP folks really aggravates me. Office politics, bureaucracy, toxic workplaces, working until you drop–I can’t stand it. And being in an office with constant noise and people dropping into your office (or it’s even worse when you don’t have an office), and the way corporate office work environments are designed–all of that makes me tense.

Before I knew I was an HSP, I thought I was too sensitive, and I’d tell myself, “Why can’t you be like everybody else? This is what the world of work is like. You need to toughen up.” But it was always really hard.

I think, well actually, I know that’s why I was drawn to working for myself. When I was working with you, Val, I read this book called Making Work Work for the Highly Sensitive Person by Barrie Jaeger. It was so reassuring because it talked about a lot of the things I found challenging about the world of work. It wasn’t just me; I wasn’t overly sensitive. It’s just that I’m an HSP.

And I’m not saying HSPs can only be self-employed. There are work environments that HSPs can thrive in. But it can be challenging to find them.

How have you navigated being an Extroverted HSP?

Monica: Ooh, that has been challenging. For a long time I thought I was an ambivert. You know, like in the middle of the spectrum between extrovert and introvert. I found that there were times when I absolutely had to be around people and times when I absolutely had to be away from people. Working with you, Val, I discovered it was the mix of being an extrovert and an HSP.

When I had a job, I found I had more control over my schedule as I advanced in my career. I could be mindful of the fact that I didn’t want to book back-to-back meetings or that I should work with my door closed sometimes. Post-COVID, my supervisor allowed us to work from home a couple of days a week after we were back in the office. That helped me avoid some of the typical office dynamics each week, and I really appreciated that.

It’s easier now that I’m self-employed. I can create a mix of working with others and working on my own. I work out of my home, and I have total control over my working environment, well, except when the folks are blowing leaves outside my window!

Monica Parker portfolio career solopreneur at work

I have to ask, what was it like working with Spike Lee? That sounds amazing.

Monica: Ha ha, working with Spike was great. When I was a senior at Harvard, Spike came and taught a class on contemporary African American filmmaking. I took the class and approached Spike to ask about a spring break internship.

I spent spring break interning at his company, and he invited me back after graduation to do a summer internship and if all went well, he said he’d hire me that fall.

He ended up hiring me for his development department. He had recently gotten a first-look deal with Universal Pictures and was going to executive produce some films. My job was reading screenplays and going to film festivals. I know, it’s a ridiculous first job. I got to go to the Sundance Film Festival!

Val: That really is an amazing first job. I love this glimpse of your early career story and it shows me that people saw your shining light early on.

Why did you decide to transition to self-employment?

Monica: This is actually my second time being self-employed. After practicing law, I decided to leave the practice of law to start a career coaching business working with lawyers who didn’t want to practice but weren’t sure what they wanted to do.

It was an incredible experience. I worked with a number of lawyers to help them navigate changing careers. A lawyer-turned-literary agent reached out and helped me negotiate two book deals, and I had two books published.

But then a recession hit, and the consulting work I was doing on the side (I had a portfolio career back then and didn’t know it!) dried up. I was also feeling pretty isolated. I was the only one of my friend group who was self-employed. I missed working with others. So I returned to the world of employment.

Fast forward several years, the itch to have my own thing came back. And I realized just how important autonomy is for me. I really like being able to decide who I’m going to work with, what I’m going to work on, when I’ll do it, and how I’ll do it. That’s not so easy to find in a job.

So I decided to go for it and build in some extra supports this time to help me navigate some of the challenges I had the first time around, like working with Val and finding a community of entrepreneurs.

What is it like having a portfolio career? Is there a typical day for you?

Monica: There isn’t a typical day. But here’s what I might be doing in a week:

  • I’ll go to a client’s house to help them declutter & organize for 3 hours at a time.
  • I’ll do a virtual group coaching call on what it’s like working at a large law firm with a small group of new associates.
  • I might have a virtual 1:1 executive coaching call with a woman in a leadership role at her organization.
  • Then I’ll facilitate a cohort of women in the C-suite on a virtual mastermind call discussing the challenges they’re facing at work.
  • There’s always administrative and marketing stuff to be done too, like sending out a client invoice or writing a blog post or revising my endless to-do list.

That much variety might drive someone else out of their minds, but I really like it. I took a career abilities assessment years ago and learned that it’s critical for me to have variety in my work. In fact, a career counselor once told me that doing just one thing would be death for me. I took that to heart.

It’s not always the case that folks who have portfolio careers do very different things. So, for example, you could be a career coach who also teaches a career development class at a university and certifies folks in a career coaching methodology. It’s still a portfolio career, but all of the things are related.

The other reason I have a portfolio career is that it’s going to take some time for me to build my professional organizing business. Sure, I have savings, but I want to hold on to that for as long as I can. Doing work based on capabilities I’ve built over the years is easy for me to do and enjoyable, and it helps me pay the bills.

Some folks manage that by having a part-time job while they build their business. Others work full-time jobs and do other kinds of work in the evenings and on weekends. I did that for a while. Those are portfolio careers too!

What’s it like being a new business owner?

Monica: It’s an emotional roller coaster ride. There are days I’m like, this is amazing! There are other days where I’m like, what if I can’t make this work?? Everything is new, there’s so much to do, and it’s not like you can guarantee anything.

It can be hard to maintain my sense of well-being. I have to remind myself that it’s just as important to take breaks as it is to work. I have a nap policy. No, really! I try to take a 30-minute nap in the afternoon each day if my schedule permits. I love to read mystery novels, so I leave plenty of time for that in the evening and on weekends.

Working on your own can be isolating, so I’ve made a concerted effort to schedule get-togethers with friends, and I’m part of a small virtual accountability group with a couple of professional organizers that meets weekly.

It takes serious organizational skills to have a portfolio career—good thing I’m a professional organizer, ha ha. I live by my Google calendar and my to-do lists. I’m still learning how not to stack appointments on top of each other because then you have no time to breathe and there’s no room for error. There’s a lot of juggling, but I like the mix. And I’m making it work.

Val: You really do amaze me on how organized you are and it shows in how much I see you accomplishing! Wow again.

Monica Parker - professional organizer in Atlanta, GA.
Here’s Monica with a client in her professional organizing business based in metro Atlanta, Georgia. She can also help over Zoom.

Lessons from Monica’s Story

While everyone is unique, I believe we can still learn some good underlying principles found in individual stories. I hear at least 6 great lessons in Monica’s story:

  1. Self-employment can be a joyful outlet and with more control over your work environment and managing your own energy.
  2. Trying out many career paths is fine and doesn’t mean anything is wrong. It could be that you’re wired to want to do more than one thing.
  3. You can change careers even at mid-life when something new calls to you.
  4. Blending a set of interests into a portfolio career can work for some people, especially if you’re good at being organized.
  5. Keeping some consistent paid work provides a source of security while you create something new.
  6. Getting some guidance and connecting to community can provide more stability, camaraderie, and practical connections.

This story is part of a series of inspiring stories of introverts and HSPs living their purpose.

Wondering about your own path?

You might like these resources:

Picture of Val Nelson

Val Nelson

I’ve been a self-employed career/business/purpose coach since 2009. I help introverts and HSPs (like me) who want to make a difference — in a way that fits our energy and our practical needs too. ~ Val Nelson
Coaching | SOULpreneurs Circle | Courses | Newsletter | LinkedIn

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